


Redemption: Take Two (Thousand)

by D_f_m22



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: F/F, F/M, Fix-It, Post-Season/Series 10
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-07
Updated: 2018-02-27
Packaged: 2019-03-01 16:50:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,271
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13299087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/D_f_m22/pseuds/D_f_m22
Summary: After the Doctor Falls, the Doctor can barely face the sight of Missy.Missy, meanwhile, needs all the help she can get to survive.Two space lesbians and a cyborg try their best to help.A sort-of companion piece to my Tales from the Vault, though exploring what happens after the events of the finale.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I wasn't going to write another multi-chapter story, yet here we are. 
> 
> Not been feeling great recently so this isn't the best work I've ever done by a long run but it will get better. Here's a short opening. It exists in the Tales from the Vault universe, which will continue, but can also be read alone. 
> 
> Feedback appreciated.

The steady whirr of the Tardis was the only sound to break through the otherwise silent bedroom. It came and went in a rhythm as steady as a heartbeat or as certain as the tide crashing against the shore. The room was dimly lit with shades of blue and purple reflecting across the tiled room. It was unfair, really, to call it a bedroom. It was too sanitary, there were too many beeping machines and ventilators and there were none of the personal keepsakes that made a room a bedroom. Really, it was nothing more than a hospital room. 

 

Bill- who felt centuries older than she had been the last time she stepped on board the Tardis- found her eyes drawn to the small bed in the middle of the room. In the bed laid Missy- asleep, breathing with only the aid of the ventilator and bleeding out onto the white bedsheets. For once, the Time Lady that had terrified and intrigued Bill in equal measure was as harmless as she appeared. Stood in the doorway, she couldn’t quite bring herself to enter what looked set to be the final resting place of the being that had turned her into a Cyberman. It was still strange, thinking that Razor had been Missy. Well, not exactly her, but would be her. Razor’s deceit had stung. They’d been friends, or so she’d thought. Ten years and all for nothing. Swallowing, Bill suddenly realised the betrayal she felt was but a drop in the ocean compared to the Doctor’s. 

 

Glancing back over her shoulder, she caught sight of the greyed Time Lord sat on the steps in the console room and refusing to enter the room of his friend. He was bloodied and bruised and exhausted but alive- and a lot more alive than Missy. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Nardole dare to walk over to the Doctor with the offer of a cup of tea. It was declined with a growl and attack eyebrows. Bill looked back at the stricken Time Lady and let out an audible sigh. She imagined this was how adult children felt when they saw the first signs of age on their parents- a glimpse that they weren’t immortal.

 

“Come in or come out,” Heather stated calmly. “Either way, you need to shut the door. She can’t risk catching an infection.” 

 

Bill took two steps in and shut the door. It wasn’t Missy that drew her in, but her girlfriend. She was sure she was her girlfriend, they’d kissed, and she’d saved her from her metal death- that must mean they could skip dates one and two. Shaking herself, Bill realised that was the lowest of priorities at this moment in time. Shuffling closer to the bed, she wrapped her cardigan around her tighter. It was almost as though the lifeless Missy gave off the same icy chill she had in life. 

 

“She’s not dead,” Heather replied calmly and pointed at the purple line that buzzed along one of the monitors. “That’s her consciousness and it’s very much alive. It spikes and dips, but it’s consistent. Wherever she is right now, she’s very much alive. We just need to bring her back here.” 

 

“Do we?” Bill says harshly, shocked at her own coldness. Embarrassed at her own lack of compassion, she looks to her feet and tries to change the subject quickly. “How did you know I thought she was dead- are you another telepathic being? If you are, we’re going to need to have a word about boundaries.”

 

“I’m not telepathic. You just had that look on your face that humans make around death.”

 

“Oh,” Bill commented. “Why are you helping her- you don’t even know her?” 

 

“How do you know I don’t know her?” Heather says cryptically. “Anyway, before all this happened, I was training to be a doctor. What kind of doctor would I be if I didn’t help her out?” 

 

Bill’s mouth opened and closed a few times, but she was distracted by the bleeping around Missy that spiked out of the blue. 

 

“She’s in distress,” Heather sighed as she took the Time Lady’s hand and stroked it gently. “She needs comfort, something familiar…”

 

“She needs the Doctor”

 

“Yes, but only if he can forgive her and right now, I don’t think he can. Until then, she needs something familiar that’ll make her feel at ease.”

 

Bill inhaled and thought back to the times in the Vault, she remembered. The small, furry companion she’d kept sprung to mind and her face lit up in recognition. 

 

“I’ll be back!”

 

Heather watched her and nodded, turning back to the Time Lady and starting to change the dressing on her back.

 

XXXXXXXX

 

Nardole was stood on one side of the console room. He struck a defensive stance and Bill was momentarily confused until she saw the Doctor on the other side, piloting the Tardis erratically. 

 

“What’s going on?”

 

“The Doctor wants to drop Missy off on Gallifrey.”

 

“I should have done it when I first found her. This idea of redemption, it was foolish.”

 

Bill’s eyebrows raised, and her mouth hung open. 

 

“Gallifrey? That’s your home planet? I thought you said they’d tortured Missy”

 

“Yes,” the Doctor says, faltering slightly at this. “Yes, but she deserves to be punished.”

 

“We found her lying in the forest without him and dying,” Nardole said. “We don’t know what happened, but don’t you think you could give her a chance to explain?”

 

“I offered her a thousand years to explain.”

 

“You took her out and to temptation after seventy.”

 

“Oh, so it’s my fault she has no self-control?”

 

“Enough!” Bill shouted at the petulant niggling. “Whatever you decide, she can’t go anywhere until she’s stable and that’s going to be a long time. She’s in distress. Heather says she needs something that’ll bring comfort. I remember she left that life-like cat thing here before we left.”

 

“Yana?” The Doctor questioned. “It’s in the library.” 

 

Bill nodded and disappeared towards the library. 

 

“So, she’s staying?” Nardole asked quietly. 

 

“For now.” 

 

XXXXXXXX

Two boys sat alone in a barn. Heavy rains battered the tin roof while the smaller of the children cradled the larger one. Running a hand through his blond hair, the smaller boy tutted and cooed in a way that was surprisingly consoling. A clap of thunder made the larger boy shake. 

 

“It’s a storm, Thete,” the boy known as Koschei sighed. “Honestly, there’s nothing to fear.”

 

For once, Koschei sounded genuine in his assertions. 

 

“It’s dark though,” Theta muttered back. 

 

“No, it’s not. There’s a star over there.”

 

XXXXXXXX

 

The Doctor jolted awake and tried to shake the dream. It was no use and he knew it wasn’t his dream but the lingering remnants of whatever world the Time Lady down the corridor was trapped in. Getting out of bed, he made his way towards the makeshift hospital wing, thankful for the silence of the night. Slipping into the room, he found himself drawn to the Time Lady in the centre of the room. It was the first time he had seen her since she’d abandoned him for her younger self. 

 

She looked like death. 

 

“You need to get your dreams under control, it’s not fair on me” he commented as he walked towards the bed. “I suppose, at least it’s a sign that you’re alive.”

 

The Doctor eyed the tubes and wires and bloody patch on the sheets. He caught sight of Yana nestled by her head and took a seat next to the bed.

 

“You should have known you could never win a fight against yourself. Especially not that version of you and especially not when I’d made you so damn soft.”

 

The Doctor looked up, half expecting a sarcastic retort. There was none. 

 

“What happened then- did he turn on you half way to the lifts. I’m not surprised. If not, you’d be off raising hell with him somewhere.”

 

There was a long pause and the Doctor felt himself fall deeper into his despair. This wasn’t like Missy. Yes, she’d been injured before and she’d been injured badly before, but this seemed to be something else. 

 

“I know you’re there Kos and I’m sorry I haven’t been to see you before now but please give me a sign you’re coming back to me.” 

 

A spike in mental activity caused the machine behind the Doctor to jump up. 

 

He watched the bed as Missy’s eyelids fluttered rapidly and opened- only briefly- before closing again. It was the best sign he was going to get. 

 

“We’re having a chat when you’re better, Missy” he said firmly, still angered by her betrayal. “But that means you have to get better.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's taken so long to update. Feedback appreciated.

“Is this normal?” Bill asked the Doctor.

 

The young human and Time Lord were sat either side of Missy’s bed. The room- which had once been the Time Lady’s bedroom- now resembled a hospital ward. The lighting was dimmed in a brilliant shade of purple- the Doctor, with his foolish sentimentality, selecting the Time Lady’s favourite earth colour. Deep down, he knew it made no difference. Even deeper down, however, he hoped it did.

 

The Time Lord looked over at his human companion and every second of his age was revealed in one look. In his lap sat Yana, his once luxurious fur now matted and greyed and suffering from the absence of his Mistress.

 

The Doctor grasped hold of a clump and pulled- the robotic cat didn’t respond, it’s batteries long removed. With a heavy sigh, the Time Lord thought back to first time he’d brought the cat into the Vault. It had been years ago- _decades, even_. As he recalled Missy’s delighted smile, a pang of pain hit his hearts. The pain intensified when he remembered the Time Lady’s gratitude and subsequent promises to be good and to engage with the process of learning to be better.

 

_How had he been so stupid?_

 

From day one, every word that had left her mouth had been lies.

 

Everything she’d said had been to save her own skin.

 

The Mistress was no different from the Master and there was no redemption for hearts as dark as theirs. All it had taken was one trip outside the Vault, and she’d returned to her old ways. It had, the Doctor reasoned, been an exceptionally challenging first excursion- no one had been expecting to run into an earlier incarnation of the Mistress. Never mind the fact they had happened upon her past self that was the most damaged.

 

But no! It still wasn’t an excuse.

 

If it wasn’t bumping into Junior, she would have found another way to let the Doctor down.

 

Of course, that still didn’t explain how Missy had ended up bleeding to death on the floor of the spaceship…

 

…No! The Doctor stopped the thought before he could allow hope to develop.

 

If he did, it would be crawling through his veins like a poisonous weed- corrupting his thoughts with happy ever afters that could never exist. Missy had never had the intention of standing with him. She had left with her younger self and he had turned on her.

 

_Probably to save his own skin._

 

They were, after all, two of the same. Both ruthless and thirsty for survival- even at their own expense. As soon as Missy had recovered enough to regain consciousness, she was on her own.

 

“Doctor,” Bill repeated. “Did you hear me?”

 

“What?” The Doctor asked the human.

 

His gaze fell on a spot on the wall behind her as he failed to look at her face. It still had a wet sheen to it, testament to the fact she was no longer quite human. She looked impossibly young and the Doctor realised the gravity of everything the Master (and by default, Missy) had snatched away from her. _All in one careless act_.

 

“Is this normal?” The human asked, slight exasperation lacing her tone.

 

“None of this is your human notion of normal,” he replied. “You’re on a time machine with two aliens, a puddle and a cyborg.”

 

“Don’t do that,” Bill said. “Don’t joke and try and pretend you’re fine while I can see you’re breaking inside. That’s not cool, Doctor. We’re friends and after what we’ve just been through, I deserve better than to be fobbed off with a witty one liner. Now, tell me the truth, is this normal?”

 

The Doctor sighed, and his gaze moved from the wall to Missy’s pale face. It had been weeks since the ill-fated expedition and the Time Lady hadn’t shown any signs of waking up. This wasn’t normal even for Gallifreyan healing comas and if it wasn’t for continued spikes in her brain activity, the Doctor would have thought her dead.

 

A universe where the Master was properly, truly dead scarcely bared thinking about.

 

Not to the Doctor, at least.

 

“It’s not normal,” the Time Lord said eventually. “She should have regenerated but her body’s not letting her. I don’t know why, I failed the physiology module at the Academy. _She’d know why_. She’d probably bloody tell me if she ever wakes up. She’d always been an unbearable know it all.”

 

The Doctor’s voice cracked, and a pained noise caught in his throat. It was the horrible noise of grief and anguish that was known universally. Bill’s face clouded in concern, sympathy pooling in her stomach. She felt sick as she watched her friend’s obvious grief.

 

“It’s okay, Doctor. Well, no, none of this is okay. But it’s okay to cry and it’s okay to be upset and it’s okay to miss her.”

 

“No,” the Doctor replied with a shake of his head. “No, it’s not okay. She doesn’t deserve my grief and she doesn’t deserve to make me feel like this again and she doesn’t need us keeping a bedside watch over her. I’m going. I’m not playing her twisted games anymore.”

 

“Doctor!” Bill cried after the departing Time Lord. “Wait!”

 

He didn’t wait, he left and marched down the corridors further into the heart of the Tardis. The machines that monitored Missy’s brain activity spiked, coming to life with the red lines that Bill had come to recognise as distress.

 

As she looked at the empty doorway, the human considered making her exit too. She’d be lying if she said she ever felt truly comfortable in Missy’s presence but as she saw the Time Lady’s brow crease in distress, she sat back down and picked up Missy’s ice cold hand.

 

“I never knew you could be this quiet, Missy” the human teased. The Time Lady’s expression remained blank. “Come on now, don’t you think you’ve had quite enough attention? When are you going to wake up?”

 

Unsurprisingly, Bill received no response. The spike in Missy’s brain activity did seem to calm at the sound of a voice, the red distress lines decreasing. The readings weren’t as settled as when she was in the presence of the Doctor, but it was an improvement nonetheless.

 

“Oh Missy,” Bill sighed. It was said with a compassionate tone that surprised herself. _"Where are you?"_

 

XXXXXXXX

 

It was cold and dark- two of the things Missy hated the most.

 

Of course, it wasn’t cold and dark. It was only cold and dark in her mind, in the imagined dreamscape her psyche had chosen to create while the found herself trapped as her physical body struggled to recover.

 

She could kill her younger self for what he had done to her…

 

…Oh, on second thoughts, that was rather what had led to her current predicament.

 

She really should have known better than to turn her back on herself.

 

_That had been a rookie mistake._

 

As the Time Lady mulled over her poor decision (the latest in a string of poor choices), she focused her energy and surveyed the latest dreamscape her mind had conjured up. Her mental abilities remained sublime- despite the deep-rooted scars that ran across her mind and it meant that she had been able to imagine up some splendid places.

 

Lush rainforests on distant planets, tropical beaches and a volcano at the top of a snow-covered mountain had been among her favourites so far.

 

There had even been one occasion when she’d been transported back to her childhood. That had been her favourite, but not because it was a particularly happy time. No, it had been her favourite because Theta had been there. Not some dream-copy of Theta, either.

It had been her Theta, _her Doctor_ \- his psychic residue seeping into her awareness and manifesting itself as young Theta.

 

For the psychic presence to manifest, he would have had to have been close by and receptive in the real world. If he was close by and receptive in the real world, that meant there was still hope that she’d be forgiven.

 

He’d been nearby recently too- she’d felt him. But he’d been unresponsive and despondent and had left with a soul full of anger. Maybe that was what was responsible for the dark and cold terrain she now found herself in.

 

Today’s destination was not working for her. It was drab and melancholy and a far cry from the tropical plains of faraway rainforests and familiar comforts of her childhood Gallifrey.

 

Before she had time to explore her surrounding any further, a voice interrupted her.

 

“Missy,” the voice boomed. Smugness radiated from every syllable. “We meet again.”

 

She recognised the voice instantly, and it made her freeze in horror.

 

The extent of her horror was so much so that it had an impact on her imagined dreamscape and the Time Lady soon found herself plunged into the dark depths of an icy cave.

 

All was dark, but for sparkling white grin and piercing set of eyes. It stood out like a malicious Cheshire cat welcoming Missy to her own wonderland.

 

A wonderland that had more in common with the pits of hell than a childish fairy tale.

 

“You’re not here,” Missy stammered. “I killed you.”

 

Missy heard a click and in a flash of red smoke, the Master appeared. He pouted and shrugged, perform a little twirl that Missy knew was meant to mock her.

 

“And I killed you,” he said, fingers aimed accusingly at his older self. “Maybe neither of us have as good an aim as we think.”

 

“Or maybe you’re a figment of my sick imagination.”

 

“Oh, it’s very _sick_. I know that much.”

 

The Master took two steps forward and cornered Missy against the ice wall of the cave.

 

“Maybe we’re both dead.”

 

Missy shivered and looked down.

 

“Don’t be ridiculous,” she tutted. “We never die.”

 

“Yes, you’re right there. I think you’ll do well to remember that.”

 

A flash of confusion crossed Missy’s features and the Master threw his head back laughing.

 

“We look precious when we do that. I love it. I simply can’t wait for how much fun I’m going to have being you. But no, I’m getting carried away, we have an adventure awaiting.”

 

“An adventure?” Missy scoffed. “This is ridiculous. You’re not even here- this doesn’t make sense.”

 

“Keep telling yourself that, lady-me.” The Master reached out and pulled Missy by the wrist, leading her out of the cave.

 

XXXXXXXX

 

The Tardis had been silent as the odd family ate their evening meal. Nardole was about to serve dessert while the Doctor and Heather looked over Missy’s medical notes. Bill had watched on, intrigued as she listened to prognosis and diagnosis she didn’t understand. It had been a pleasant enough evening, all things considered.

 

Pleasant and silent until they heard the Mistress scream.


End file.
